She was the youngest child and only daughter of John W. Garrett, a philanthropist and president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B.

Like many other suffragists of the nineteenth century, Garrett chose not to marry; instead, she kept a lifelong working and emotional relationship with Thomas.

In her later years, she collaborated with her longtime friends Susan B. Anthony and Anna Howard Shaw to try to secure the right for women to vote in the United States.

Both of her parents, John W. Garrett and Rachel Ann Harrison, came from prominent and wealthy Baltimore families.

Although living in a luxurious house in the most prosperous part of Baltimore, Garrett had a lonely and unhappy childhood.

[1] Garrett learned about charitable works in her young age as both her parents and grandparents were involved in philanthropy.

She was also greatly influenced by other Maryland women, who offered significant assistance to Union soldiers during the Civil War by providing water, refreshments and nursing care.

Dolly was the daughter of a steel magnate and became the legal ward of John W. Garrett after her father's death.

In response to the restrictive school policy, the three girls formed their own study group to learn biological science, and dissected a rat to everyone's horror.

[1] After leaving school, she continued to learn from her father about commerce and the operation of a railroad company, later serving as his secretary.

[5] Through collective effort, the members of "The Friday Evening" started the Bryn Mawr School for Girls in Baltimore, 1885.

She thus had opportunities to meet with many business magnates in America, including Andrew Carnegie, J. P. Morgan, William Henry Vanderbilt, and Jay Gould.

[1] Using her inherited wealth, Garrett helped found the Bryn Mawr School for Girls in Baltimore, so named to reference the already-popular Bryn Mawr College of Pennsylvania, which focused on scholastic achievement in traditionally male-dominated disciplines, such as mathematics and science.

For instance, "The Kitchen Magazine asked, 'Why does not Miss Garrett or some other philanthropist invest a quarter of a million dollars in a model school of domestic economy, in which we prepare girls for housekeeping and homemaking,' adding that 'without thoroughly trained, competent housekeepers it is a folly to hope for well-trained, pleasant homes.

Garrett, failing to secure additional funding and disappointed by the WMSF trustees, finally donated $306,977 by herself to the medical school.

In the late nineteenth century, most of the medical schools in the United States were "small profit-making enterprises" owned by the faculties.

[5] In October 1893, after accepting Garrett's terms and conditions of her gift, the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine admitted three women students for the first time.

[12] Famous women graduates include Florence Rena Sabin, Dorothy Reed Mendenhall, and Helen B.

[13] Notable alumnae of Bryn Mawr School include Julia Randall, Mildred Natwick, and Léonie Gilmour.